The supracardiac type is the most common total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) and is thought to be relatively rarely accompanied by pulmonary venous obstruction. An ascending vertical vein usually passes anterior to the left pulmonary artery, connecting to the brachiocephalic vein without obstruction. Now we report two cases in which the vertical vein passed between the left pulmonary artery and left bronchus with severe pulmonary vein obstruction in neonate. The cases are 12-day and 8-day males both of which were diagnosed mainly by UCT and underwent a succesful emergency operation. The former case with more severe pulmonary congestion than the later, had slower improvement of respiratory function and mild pulmonary hypertension after operation. The ascending vertical veins of both cases are compressed between left pulmonary artery and left main bronchus and then the pulmonary venous obstruction will appear and increase pulmonary hypertension. Resultant distention of the pulmonary artery will cause greater compression of the vertical vein. This will create a “hemodynamic vise.” For these cases, an earlier operation is required at the point of post-operative recovery.

Continuous retrograde cerebral perfusion (CRCP) during hypothermic circulatory arrest is a useful adjunct for brain protection during aortic arch surgery. According to our experience, no correlation was observed between perfusion pressure and flow rate. Internal jugular vein valves can restrict the flow of CRCP. We performed a study of internal jugular valves, morphologically in autopsy specimens and functionally in clinical patients. Apparently good venous valves were observed in 18 out of 30 cases (60%) on the right side and in 10 out of 29 cases (34%) on the left side. Of 32 autopsy cases, all but one had venous valves at the venous angle. Angiography of the right brachiocephalic vein revealed internal jugular vein valves in only 15 of 38 patients (39%), and in 34 of the 38 patients (89%) some regurgitation of the valve was demonstrated. In 4 patients (11%), no regurgitation was observed. These results show that internal jugular vein valves can restrict the flow of CRCP in some cases and this may be one possible cause of the lack of correlation between perfusion pressure and flow rate.

Plasma concentrations of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured successively during and after open heart surgery (13 cases). Plasma concentrations of TNFα did not increase during surgery but increased gradually after the 1st operative day reached the maximum level at the 7th operative day (128±15pg/ml, which was a 3-fold increase compared with the previous value). Plasma concentrations of IL-1β remained at the previous level during surgery and increased only once at 6 hours after operation. Conversely, plasma concentrations of IL-6 increased dramatically during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) reaching a peak at the end of CPB (260±200pg/ml, which was a 15-fold increase over the previous value) and recovered to previous values rapidly thereafter. Plasma IL-6 concentrations changed rapidly during surgery, while plasma concentrations of TNFα and IL-1β did not increase sharply. This may indicate that IL-6 may play a role as a mediator of acute inflammatory reaction.

Thirteen cases of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm were treated during a period of 7 years and 5 months. In 6 cases, left thoracotomy was used before laparotomy to clamp the descending thoracic aorta. The merits and demerits of this method were evaluated in this study. It is useful for early improvement of cerebral and coronary circulation and prevention of sudden spurting hemorrhage, especially in cases with the previous laparotomies. On the other hand, this method has a shorter clamp time limit and requires much time in cases with pleural adhesions. It may increase the amount of operative bleeding and the incidence of postoperative respiratory insufficiency. It may also cause an intraoperative thoracic aortic dissection and rupture of thoracic aortic aneurysms if present. It is considered that this method is advantageous, but should be used only in selected cases.